The Dead Have Risen
by Beckah Godric-Northman
Summary: The zombie stopped suddenly, blood streaming out of its decaying mouth. Its teeth were rotted and chipped as if someone had whacked them with a hammer. Melanie Dixon is trying to survive this new and cruel world. Along with her two brothers they try and kill as many of the dead as they possibly can... with out getting themselves killed in the process.


**A.N This is another story I started in my spare time. **

**Disclaimer - I only own people you don't recognise, Melanie, her mother. Everything else belongs to the creators of the awesome show, AMC.**

The zombies had no thoughts as they devoured the innocent deer. The meal itself wasn't filling enough for the two of them, but they were never satisfied. They always had to have the taste of fresh flesh on their decaying tongues.

Melanie grimaced at the sight, she didn't necessarily like watching them eat, but she knew she couldn't take her eyes off them, they could easily get the jump on her if she wasn't careful and alert to their position at all times. Her brothers, Daryl and Merle, were crouched next to her. Merle was smirking in glee, he positively loved killing 'walkers', which was the name the group had given them.. Daryl, armed with his trusty crossbow, aimed it at one of the wretched beasts, Merle aiming at the other with his small, but still equally effective crossbow, preparing to shoot.

Melanie was pleasantly surprised when they actually agreed for her to go along with them on one of their daily trips for food. Despite there being almost sixteen years between her and her youngest brother, and over twenty years between Melanie and Merle, they were still close, no matter how hard they were to get along with sometimes.

Melanie was the youngest, being only twenty years old. She had light brown hair, bordering on blonde, with dark brown almost black eyes. Daryl, the middle Dixon was almost thirty six years old, with medium length hair, the same shade as Melanie's and the same colour eyes too, which they regretfully received from their father. Merle, the oldest and most violent Dixon was forty five years old with head of hair that was nearly all grey (something that Melanie loved to tease him about, much to his dismay) and light blue eyes. He was the ony Dixon sibling to get their mothers eyes.

The zombie stopped suddenly, blood streaming out of its decaying mouth. Its teeth were rotted and chipped as if someone had whacked them with a hammer. The dead deer was almost all devoured, one of the zombies was still munching away on the carcass, a horrible sight, but that was what the world have terrifyingly come to. The apocalypse, who knew it would happen? Melanie sure had no clue, much like the rest of the world. She supposed that the only people who had a clue, where those paranoid people who had prepared for it years ago and were happily living even with the destroyed and decaying world all around them.

Melanie hated the sight of familiar places looking demolished and run down. Even her house was in a complete disarray, it was horrible to see. She had lived in that house with her mother since she was born. Her mother wasn't the mother of her brothers, no, Melanie's mother was forced into a relationship with the older and meaner Will Dixon when she was only twenty five, after his wife, Jolene, was mysteriously killed in a house fire before Melanie was even thought about.

Natasha Vinson was an aspiring writer, but her dreams were shattered into a million pieces when her father forced to "get to know" the awful man, due to a business proposition that he had with her father. Poor Natasha was caught in the middle of a massive business set up that didn't turn out too well. Will Dixon betrayed her father which caused Natasha to finally be able to leave him. Unfortunately she was already pregnant, but she made a deal with herself not to abort the baby, much to her father's chagrin and dismay. After her mother's horrific death, Melanie sought out her brothers, not her father as she later found out that he dies just months after her mother, leaving Merle to look after his baby brother.

'Merle?' she whispered seeing the zombie stumble to its feet.

Merle didn't grace her with a verbal answer, he just nodded, signalling that he'd heard her and aggressively pulled the trigger of the crossbow, hitting the staggering soulless corpse right in between the eyes, the arrow entering the front of its head and exiting the back in a spurt of its coagulating blood. Daryl shot the other swiftly after, not even allowing the zombified man to stand after witnessing the second death of its companion.

Merle hollered in glee as he watched, almost morbidly as the two carcasses fell beside the deer. Daryl was too busy reloading his cross bow to look at the kills him and his brother had just made. Melanie on the other hand was looking in the direction of their camp. She still couldn't believe that her brothers actually wanted to join another group; she would have thought they would have wanted it to just be the three of them. The group they had joined consisted of over twenty people, all struggling survivors in the new world that they all found themselves in. Shane Walsh was the unofficial leader and a major douche bag, always carrying around his massive automatic shotgun, thinking he was all big and tough. Lori, the woman he was sweet on was the head woman, due to the fact that she was sleeping with Shane, even though no one else knew. The Dixon clan weren't supposed to know, it wasn't their fault that they had come across them in the woods, but stayed back, not letting them know they were there. Which was for the best, they knew that if the two knew that they knew, Shane would have something to say about that. The whole group seemed to hate Melanie's brothers, they would talk to her but she wouldn't say she had many friends in the large group. Even though her brothers were the ones that caught the group food every day, they still had a mutual dislike for them. The only person seemed to talk to was Carol, a genuinely nice woman, with a daughter named Sophia, a sweet little girl and an abusive husband, Ed. Melanie loathed him with a passion. She also hated that none of the group seemed to do anything, especially Shane the "leader". She didn't know how he could call himself a leader, he did nothing for the group, Merle and Daryl did more than he did.

Armed with ten squirrells, the trio made their way back to camp, which was only about a half an hour walk from their current position. Merle took lead, closely followed by Lanie and Daryl. Even though she was twenty years old, she was still the baby of the family and always had to be with one of her overprotective brothers especially in the new harsh environment.

Chattering slowly began to get louder and louder as they made their way closer to the camp.

'Honey, I'm home!' shouted Merle sarcastically with a mean smirk, almost dancing to his tent. Lanie and her two brothers had separate tents, though small and cosy, sat next to each other.

Andrea, the pretty blonde scoffed and stood from her seat next to her sister, Amy who was a year older than Lanie, being twenty one years old. 'We were all hoping you wouldn't be back, Merle.' she snarled.

Merle gave a laugh, 'Well, blondie, I was 'opin' you wouldn' be 'ere 'anall.' With that he swaggered to his tent, dropping his portion of squirrels in the process.

Lanie and Daryl also walked to their tents, disposing of their squirrels. They got no appreciation for hunting them and that grated Lanie's nerves. Her brothers were the ones who put food on the metaphorical table, allowing them all to eat almost everyday.

Lanie couldn't help but overhear Shane's conversation with Lori and T-Dog, 'We need supplies, now. We barely have enough for another day.' Shane stressed, adjusting his shotgun over his shoulder. He always carried that thing around with him and nobody knew why.

'But, Shane, we can't risk the lives of the group.' Lori said.

Shane looked at her lovingly, 'Lori, I get what ya sayin', I do, but we need food and medicine.' he turned to face the rest of the group, 'Any volunteers?' he asked.

Lanie was surprised with how many people raised their hands. Glenn, Jacqui, Morales, Andrea and T-Dog… and Merle. What? He's goin'? Why? Lanie's thoughts were befuddled as she listen to her brother demand that he tag along.

'Dixon! Ya not goin'.' said Shane.

Merle looked at him and scoffed in disgust, 'An' who're ya to say otherwise?' he asked rhetorically.

'The man with the big-ass gun.' said Shane lifting up said gun as if to give more validation to his statement.

Merle gave a mocking laugh, 'Ya think a big gun'll scare me?' he said, turning without looking back, ending the conversation.

Shane childishly pulled faces behind his retreating back; he knew he'd just lost the argument and to be honest, it was a good plan to get rid of Merle-Freaking-Dixon once and for all.

Merle slowly, almost cautiously walked to his little sister who stood there looking at him with her hands placed firmly on her hips, ready to scold him; he suddenly felt like a child. He opened his mouth but was stopped Lanie's face.

'Merle, why're you goin'?' Ya crazy?' Lanie said, as soon as she got closer to him, away from the rest of the group.

Daryl looked up as he raised her voice but continued gutting the squirrels that they had gotten.

'Why, little sis, you worried abou' ol' Merle?' he asked cheekily even with the non too please expression on Lanie's face.

'I'm serious, Merle. Please don' go.' she implored, knowing full well that he'd go anyway, but she had to try.

Her oldest brother's face fell back to his unemotional mask; Lanie cringed, she was in for it. She closed her eyes tightly in fateful anticipation.

'Lil' Bit, I'm gunna be comin' back, I promise.' Merle said i the soft voice that he saved for Melanie to calm her down.

The light-haired girl immediately felt tears blossoming in her eyes but kept them at bay; Merle said tears were a sign of weakness, a rule he'd always stood by.

Merle took a step back, walked over to his younger brother, sat down and began to help him prepare the squirrels, which Daryl was almost finished with, 'Look, Imma' goin' on the run. Ya look after Lil' Bit, ya hear?'

Daryl glanced at his brother from over the sharp blade, as if Merle was seriously asking him something he did every waking moment.

'Ya know I will' he stated. 'Get goin' then. They're gunna leave with out ya.'

Merle turned, swore under his breath and jogged to the car, sparing one last glance at Lanie. He had a sinking feeling in his gut, deep down but he shrugged it off; maybe the squirrel was bad, he thought with a shake of his head, getting into the car.

Lanie stared after him, distraught and stormed off beyond the tree line.

Daryl shook his head; no one even attempted to go after her because of her temper, which she regretfully inherited from their father.

In the woods, Lanie's cheeks were red, a mixture between anger at Merle, and sadness, sadness she didn't know what had caused such a strong emotion.

Why would he leave me? And Daryl? He will come back, I just know it, she thought but she had an inkling feeling, deep in her stomach which she cast out rather quickly.

A twig snapped behind her and she cursed herself for not paying attention. She gripped the knife in her belt tightly, pulling out from the belt on her jeans. She swiftly turned, raising the knife above her head… and then lowered it again, 'Daryl! Jesus!'

Daryl gave her a look that said he was less than impressed with having a knife pointed his direction,though, he couldn't help but praise his sister internally; she really was getting the hang of using a knife. While Merle and Daryl had grown up around weapons and such, Lanie was completely new.


End file.
